A RARE BLUE AND WHITE OBLONG OCTAGONAL DISH DEPICTING 'PORCELAIN PRODUCTION' Qianlong period, circa 1770-1780 Vividly painted with scenes of the 'manufacture of porcelain', the center with an extensive scene depicting outdoor drying racks of small vessels within a complex of kiln workshops, and carriers moving the long thin laden racks around the industrial site, the rim with a border of pomegranate panels reserved on a cell-patten ground. 14 3/4in (38cm) wide Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1770-1780年 罕見青花《製瓷圖》八方長盤 Published: Cohen & Cohen, Tyger Tyger, Antwerp, 2016, pp. 84-85, no. 38 and also illustrated on the endpapers 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，2016年，頁84-85，圖錄編號38，亦為封裏插圖 Images on Export porcelain depicting stages in the manufacture of porcelain are relatively rare. This platter is from the only known dinner service with this scene, although a closely-related scene is found on a punch bowl. Surviving examples from the original service suggest that it was extensive. The intended market is unknown but the many examples surviving in Sweden suggest that this Scandinavian center of the China Trade was the original destination. The service was probably imported as a 'special commission' by the Swedish East Company through its headquarters on Sweden's west coast, at Gothenburg. The scenes seem to be essentially fanciful and may be based on bound albums of watercolors (on Chinese pith-paper or rag-paper). Created for the export trade (before the discovery of photography seventy years later), these albums very often illustrate the three great Chinese manufacturing industries familiar to Westerners: the silk trade, porcelain manufacture, and tea production and marketing. Other examples from this rare and probably unique blue and white service can be found in the permanent collections of the Groninger Museum, the Winterthur Museum, Historic Deerfield at Deerfield, MA, the Peabody Essex Museum, among others. References: Cohen & Cohen, 2006, no. 33, pp. 54-57, a blue and white punch bowl with a similar scene, and a detailed description of ceramic production; and a tureen, cover and stand in The Peabody Essex Museum, illustrated by Sargent 2012, no. 50, pp. 142-143 where the author cites an extensive list of related wares either in other collections or offered in auction sales; as well as related porcelains depicting scenes of ceramic production.